


The Lone Kryptonian

by GettingGreyer



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Character Study, Family, Gen, Kara thinking about Krypton, Oneshot, Sisters, Young Kara, sister bonding, sort of, tagging is harder than i thought
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-10-03 10:58:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10243370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GettingGreyer/pseuds/GettingGreyer
Summary: Kara Zor-El has lost everything. Her planet, her family, her entire culture. She's the last child of Krypton, but she will soon discover that she is also a Danvers.A fic about Kara first arriving on Earth and how she adapts and deals with the loss of Krypton and her growing relationship with her foster-sister Alex.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I've finally done it! I've written a one shot without turning it into a multi fic that I will ultimately abandon. Yay! :)

The planet exploded into a brilliant blaze of crimson fire. Shards of rock shot from the planet and rained all around her. Pieces of the debris smashed against her pod causing it to convulse violently. Her body shook within the pod, she rocked with every collision, but Kara’s eyes remained fixated on the sight of Krypton — her home exploding into a million fragments. Kara screamed and flailed wildly within the pod as tears ran down her face. Her screams and sobs tore at her throat and ripped at her vocal cords. Nobody could hear her screams in the vastness of empty space. No one could hear the screams of the dying Krypton. 

 

A large chunk of Krypton rocketed by launching itself toward her pod. Kara squeezed her eyes shut, and she felt the gigantic rock strike the pod. She felt the pod swerve off the calculated path and instead shoot off deeper into the abyss. Kara kept her eyes tightly shut, but she could still see the bright flares of fire through her eyelids. When darkness finally came and Krypton was far from physical view Kara faded off into a deep sleep. A sleep that would last for an eternity in the timeless phantom zone. As she slept there was only one thing that Kara could see, only one thing that she dreamed. Her only thought for decades was the screams of the billions of Kryptonians on her burning planet. It was just her now. It was only Kara. She was alone, and that was more terrifying than the death of a planet. A planet didn’t just die, a culture did. Kara Zor-El is the last child of Krypton.

 

* * *

 

“Kara?”

 

“Yes, Alek?” The foreign words sounded strange on Kara’s tongue. She missed Kryptonese desperately, and often found herself saying the letters, sounds, and words of her language over and over when she was alone. The Danvers found out one day and told her stop. They told her to stop speaking and writing in her native tongue, they feared the questions that would arise if someone were to discover her pages of the Kryptonese alphabet or if someone would heard her whispering a Kryptonian prayer. It was only for her safety. At least, that’s what the Danvers said.

 

“It’s Alex.” Alex smiled at  Kara and moved to sit next to her on the bed. Kara raised an eyebrow at that, Alex had so far mostly ignored Kara. Kara was after all the strange foster-sister that embarrassed Alex in front of her friends, she was the alien that had taken over her life. Alex had never shown any interest in Kara before. 

 

“Why are you here,  _ Alex? _ ” Kara narrowed her eyes at the girl. 

 

Alex stared down at the floor as she bounced softly upon the bed, her feet swaying gingerly. “Last night, I heard … well I heard,” She released a soft sigh and then finally turned her eyes to Kara. “I heard you crying in your sleep. Are you … okay?”

 

Kara turned her head away and like Alex had been before, she turned her gaze to the floor. “I’m … fine.”

 

“Are you sure?” The brunette reached her hand across the large space between them and placed it on top of Kara’s hand. “You can tell me, we’re … family now.” Alex said that word so hesitantly,  _ family. _

 

Kara scoffed, “Is that why you ignore me at school? Is that why you ignore me here? Because we’re family? Well, you humans have a twisted meaning of the word then, Krypton was nothing like this!” 

 

Kara waited for Alex to leave the room. Kara expected the human girl to leave and to never return. But, Kara would soon learn that Alex was full of surprises.

 

“You're right,” Alex said and Kara’s eyes snapped to meet hers. Alex stared back at Kara with a newfound resolve, a newfound purpose. “I’ll stop ignoring you. I’ll be a better … sister. And I’d like to start now, so, will you please tell why you were crying last night?”

 

Kara searched the girl’s eyes and she was surprised to find actual concern. She had seen it in the Danvers’ eyes, in her cousin Kal-El’s eyes, but never before has she seen it in Alex’s eyes. Alex usually looked at Kara with anger and disdain, but now she carried a look similarly to that of her parents, except there was something else there something that the Danvers lacked: empathy and understanding. The Danvers usually looked at her with pity, they never meant to, but Kara could always find it in their eyes. Kara couldn’t find a trace of pity in Alex’s eyes. 

 

Alex understood what it meant for everything to change. She understood how a single event would mark a permanent change in the course in one’s life. Alex didn’t lose a planet, but she got Kara. And they both knew that this would change both of their lives forever. Alex didn't understand, can’t ever truly understand what it’s like to lose everything, but she was willing to try. Willing to listen, and that was enough for Kara.

 

“I had a nightmare,” Kara said, “About Krypton. Home. I keep watching it  _ die _ . Over and over again I watched it die, and I can’t scream. No one could scream and I — ”

 

Kara didn’t realize she was crying until she felt Alex wrap her warm arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug. The hot tears stung at Kara’s eyes, and she couldn’t help but to laugh at that. On this planet with their yellow sun she could fly, stop cars with her bares hands, and was indestructible, yet tears still stung.

 

That day Kara poured out her heart to Alex and told her every nightmare she had since arrived on Earth. She described the indescribable, the destruction of a planet, the death of a culture, the faces of the lost. Kara spoke for hours and eventually, she found herself just talking about Krypton. 

 

Kara vividly painted a picture of the scarlet sun and sky, the tall glacial buildings, the diverse plants and animals, everything Kara could remember she told Alex. For the first time since she arrived on Earth Krypton didn’t have to be a secret. For the first time Kara was allowed to remember and mourn.

 

It was from that day forward that Kara considered Alex to be a friend.

* * *

Alex once again scolded Kara for staring. But she couldn’t help it. A field trip to the zoo was such a dull and boring affair to Alex and her friends, but Kara had yet to see so many of the Earth’s exotic animal species congregated in a single place. She couldn’t help but to gawk in amazement at the standard affairs that the other students had long taken for granted.

 

Alex eventually gave up on “Mission: Stop Kara from being Weird” and went to talk to her friends. Alex had told her that she would try to be Kara’s sister and that she wouldn’t avoid her so much in school, and she did … try. But every so often Kara’s weirdness would embarrass Alex too much and she would leave to hang out with her friends. Alex didn’t exactly ignore her in school, but she didn’t exactly pay attention to Kara either.

 

“Kara,” At the sound of her name Kara used her super hearing and zeroed in on the conversation. She recognized the voice of Alex’s best friend. “She’s … a little strange. Don’t you think.”

 

“She’s kind of my sister, Vicki.” Alex responded awkwardly. Kara could hear the rustle of her clothes and knew that Alex was looking around for her, she apparently found Kara because the rustling stopped. Kara had made sure to avoid looking at the pair and her eyes were glued to some animal (a monkey?) in front of her. Kara could hear Alex relax and turn back to Vicki.

 

“She’s your foster-sister, and you've only known her for like a month.”

 

“Yeah,” Alex murmured, then she uttered, “She’s a little strange.”

 

Kara tried to ignore the sinking feeling in her heart. She knew that people thought she was weird. They gave her weird looks when she stared and gawked for too long at some standard commodity. They raised their eyebrows when her accent slipped or when she would accidentally said something in Kryptonese. They said things behind her back when they thought she wouldn’t hear. But she did hear. She heard everything, and it seemed that Alex had forgotten that too.    
  
“She’s strange but,” Alex’s said, “she’s Kara, and well, she’s pretty cool too.”   
  
Kara didn’t hear Vicki’s response and she didn’t really care too. A weight had suddenly been lifted from Kara’s chest and she felt … happy. Alex Danvers didn’t say something was “cool” lightly. She was the girl who rolled her eyes at most of the things that Kara did. She was the girl who had so far spent most of her time avoiding Kara. But in Alex’s mind, Kara was cool, and Kara couldn’t help but to smile at that thought. She didn't know when she had decided that Alex’s opinion of her was worth something, but to be considered cool by her foster sister was one of the greatest feelings Kara had felt since arriving on Earth.

* * *

It’s a bright and clear Saturday when Alex asks her. Alex had declined her friend’s invitations to a movie and had instead chosen to spend the day with Kara, but even so, Kara was not prepared for Alex’s question.

 

“What was Krypton like?”

 

“What?” The Danvers had spent so much time burning it into her head to not talk about her home planet, or her powers and the question was so sudden that Kara was sure that she had to have misheard.

 

“Krypton. What was it like?”

 

“Um, well, what do you want to know?” Kara struggled to restrain herself from bouncing off the walls. She was being asked about Krypton!

 

“I don’t know,” Alex shakes her head as her eyes land on the book Romeo and Juliet, it was a book for Kara’s English class, but for some reason Alex’s eyes lit up at it. “Well, what about any Kryptonian legends or stories. Do you know any?”

 

“I know … some.” Kara wanted to say all, she so desperately wanted to say that she knew every single legend, poem, and story ever spoken or written on Krypton, but she didn’t. And once again it hit her, how much she lost, and how much she will never know she lost. “Is there anything particular you want to hear.”

 

“No tragedies,” Alex nudged the book away with her foot. “Something with a happy ending, about heroes—heroes with guns.” 

 

Kara and Alex grinned at each other.

 

“Well, there is the story of the Kryptonian warrior Da Alor. He fought in the war against the Daxamites, the Daxamites were a species of brutes and they stood for everything that was against Krypton. Da Alor was a great warrior who took down many of the Daxamite’s warriors and he freed their slaves. He became infamous among both my people and the Daxamites alike. One day the Daxamite King agreed to an end to the war, but instead of talking with the Kryptonian leaders and diplomats he demanded to speak to only Da Alor. He claimed that only a warrior such as Da Alor was worthy of being a part of the negotiations.

 

“We didn’t like it, but we allowed Da Alor to represent us. He was afterall, known for being calm in the face of strife and was well-respected by all, even if he wasn’t a politician my people were sure that he would be able to bring a peaceful end to the negotiations. And he would’ve, but the Daxamite leader betrayed our trust. He didn’t want to bring an end to the war, but instead he wanted to kill our best warrior. So, while Da Alor slept in the Daxamite King’s palace the King sent assassins to  Da Alor’s bedchambers. Only, Da Alor was not asleep. He wasn’t a fool, and neither were the Kryptonians. We knew that the Daxamites would betrays us and Da Alor had been briefed by our politicians to never drop his guard. And he didn’t. He quickly dispatched the assassins and the King was quite surprised to discover that Da Alor had survived the night. 

 

“When violence didn’t work the Daxamites then decided to bribe Da Alor. They offered him money, vast amounts of money. Some claim that the King even offered up one of his wives and two of his daughters to Da Alor. But Da Alor was a Kryptonian and he wasn’t to be bribed by wealth or women. Besides, we had already won the war, even if the Daxamites didn’t know it yet.   
  
“Da Alor had secretly brought with him his soldiers, if the negotiations didn’t go as planned. So, when the King tried to kill him and then bribe him, he tried to kill Da Alor again. Da Alor defeated all the King’s guards and the Kryptonians soldiers entered the palace. The war was won, and all because of Da Alor.”

 

Kara smiled as she finished the tale. Da Alor was the hero she heard about constantly. She read countless books about him on Krypton. He was always her favorite hero, and it felt nice to breathe life into him once more by sharing his story with someone who didn’t know it.   
  
“That’s quite a story,” Alex said, “Is it true?”   
  
Kara raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”   
  
“Well, is it a legend, a fairy tale, or did it actually happen?” Alex took a breath and seemed to consider her words carefully. “On Earth, we have stories that are true: history and then we have stories that are made up: fairy tales. Then there is the in between when a story is so old that you can’t distinct the truth from the fiction. We call those stories legends.”

 

“Da Alor is history then … well,” Kara hated this. She hated when she began to question Krypton and her knowledge of it, but she now realized that she doesn’t really know the truth. “I suppose he’s a bit of a legend too. But he was real! He is as real as Rao. He represents the best of us, and every Kryptonian can repeat Da Alor’s song by heart.”

 

“His song?” 

 

“Yes,” Kara nodded, “After he died a song was written about him. It details his victories during the war and everything he saw and felt.”

 

“Can you sing it to me?” Alex said, “In the original Kryptonese, and then translate?”

 

If Alex’s sudden curiosity into Krypton was a surprise, then this was a bombshell. Kara practically jumped from the floor in excitement. Kara hadn’t spoken or written in Kryptonese for months and now she finally had an excuse. Now she was being asked to!

 

“Of course!” Kara exclaimed. She took a deep breath and she shut her eyes as a  soft melodic voice began to sing softly. “Da Alor, Krypton i–” Kara’s song ended as soon as it began and tears began to swell in her eyes. 

 

“Why’d you stop?”

 

“I …” Kara couldn’t believe it. This wasn’t happening!

 

“Kara?”

 

“I …” Kara didn’t even try to stop the tears. “I can’t remember! I can’t remember!”

 

“Kara, it’s alright.” Alex reached over to pull Kara into a hug, but Kara immediately pushed her off. 

 

“No! It’s not alright!” Kara screeched, “This isn’t right. I have to remember. I’m the only one who can remember!”

 

“Kara, it’ll come back to you–”

 

“No it won’t!” Kara swerved away from Alex, her back facing the girl. “Just … leave me alone, please?”

  
“Okay, sure, all right.” Alex drifted away to the bedroom door, lingering for a moment before she finally closed it behind her.   
  
Once Alex was gone from the room Kara yanked a notebook from her book bag and grabbed a pen! Gripping the utensil in hand her fingers moved rapidly against the paper dragging the pen along. Soon she had written the entire Kryptonese alphabet. Then she wrote it again, and she pronounced each letter slowly. Turning a page she wrote down every song, every story and every legend that she could remember. She did this for hours, and then she did this every day.   
  
Alex knew, Kara knew that Alex had to have known after the notebook spilled out of her book bag one day. But Alex didn’t say anything. She just handed the notebook back to Kara and said something that Kara will never forget, even when all of Krypton fades from her mind. Alex said to Kara, “You aren’t alone anymore.”   
  
It was from that day forward that Kara considered Alex to be her sister.


End file.
